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Argus Media

The company uses Vitrium Security to protect its market intelligence and pricing reports.

“There is a vast amount of intellectual property (IP) that goes into our reports and it is incumbent that we protect it. Vitrium Security not only protects our content but we can also track user activity via the audit log, which provides very useful information for us.” - Denis Komov, Data Manager, Argus Media

Company Overview

Argus Media is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence and market data for the global energy and commodities markets.

Key Challenges

Prior to implementing Vitrium Security, Argus Media was losing revenue from its paid subscriptions due to the illegal distribution of its PDF-based reports, particularly in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.

Reports used to be emailed to Argus’ clients as PDF attachments without any security layers on them. This made it easy for subscribers to copy the reports and either redistribute them to other, non-paying clients of Argus Media, or worse, resell them to earn their own revenue. With dozens of reports published daily, weekly and monthly, the financial impact was astounding to the company.

The Solution – Vitrium Security

In its quest to find a digital rights management (DRM) solution to protect its PDF reports, the team at Argus Media came across Vitrium Security. The team evaluated the program and loved its easy administrative interface and diverse range of security features including the user-specific watermarks, copy and print control, computer device limits, and more.

Utilizing Vitrium Security since 2010, the company has been protecting its valuable IP and revenue-generating reports from copyright infringement, unauthorized file sharing, and illegal distribution.

“There is a vast amount of intellectual property (IP) that goes into our pricing and market reports, and since our business is based on the subscriptions we charge to clients for access to this information, it is incumbent that we protect that IP," states Denis Komov, Argus Media's Data Manager. "This was the primary reason we sought out a PDF document protection solution like Vitrium Security. The system not only protects our reports and our valuable IP, but it has also helped our firm preserve its revenue streams."

New Process

With a new DRM system in place, the Argus Media production team in Moscow now follows a simple DRM process using Vitrium Security. The team first creates the PDF reports with the information gathered from its advisors around the world. They then upload the PDF files to the Vitrium Security system and apply specific DRM policies such as copy and print control, watermarks, computer limits, and expiry dates, etc. They continue to distribute their reports via email with PDF attachments but now those PDF reports are encrypted with additional DRM controls, and there is less concern of unauthorized copying, sharing, or reselling.

“We have been happy using the Vitrium Security system,” states Mr Komov. “While it has been extremely helpful in protecting our reports with DRM features, one of the key benefits that I’ve been a fan of is the audit log. This shows us who is opening our reports, how often, and from which IP address. This is very insightful information for us.”

With Vitrium Security's document analytics dashboard, Argus Media can track its protected reports with detailed, real-time data. These metrics provide insights that allow them to optimize their content for better user engagement.